AI Superpowers

Lee ran Google China, founded Sinovation Ventures, and worked in speech recognition research earlier in his career, which gives him standing in both the American and Chinese technology sectors. He argues that the era of fundamental research breakthroughs in machine learning has given way to an era of implementation, and that this shift favours China.

His argument rests on four advantages he attributes to China: abundant data generated by a population that conducts more of its life through mobile applications, an entrepreneurial culture he describes as gladiatorial and willing to copy aggressively, a large pool of trained engineers who do not need to be researchers, and government policy that funds and clears obstacles.

He describes the Chinese internet sector's development, arguing that the copying phase produced companies with operational capability that then innovated in ways Western companies did not, particularly in the integration of online and offline services, mobile payments and local delivery. The second half addresses employment. Lee gives a framework classifying jobs by whether they are optimisation-based or compassion-based and by whether they require social interaction, and predicts substantial displacement in routine cognitive and physical work. His proposed response, developed after his own cancer diagnosis, emphasises care work and human connection rather than a basic income.

The book was published in 2018 and predates the generative model era entirely, which undercuts its central claim that fundamental research was finished. Chinese regulatory intervention against its technology sector after 2020 also cuts against the government advantage argument. Lee has commercial interests in the sector he assesses. The description of how Chinese consumer internet companies actually operate remains the most valuable part.